"Disorder and Early Sorrow" is often overlooked in the discussions of Mann's literary output. After its first publication in 1925, it was reissued in 1934 with "Marion the Magician" and then in 1936 in the collection Stories of Three Decades. It has been included in several short story anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (1977) and The Norton Introduction to Literature: Fiction (1973). It has received limited attention from reviewers, but perhaps its most impressive appraisal came from Mann himself. On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday, his publisher asked for a special piece to be included in a commemorative collection. He submitted "Disorder and Early Sorrow." He remarked at the time that it is "a story which I like so much that I am tempted to count it among my very best." This praise is noteworthy since Mann was a very severe critic of his own work. About his The...